DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, June 19, the 170th day of 2022. There are 195 days left in the year. This is Juneteenth. (The federal holiday will be observed Monday.) This is also Father’s Day. On this date in:
1775: George Washington was commissioned by the Continental Congress as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
1865: Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that all remaining enslaved people in Texas were free – an event celebrated to this day as “Juneteenth.”
1910: The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington. (The idea for the observance is credited to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd.)
1911: Pennsylvania became the first state to establish a motion picture censorship board.
1917: During World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames; the family took the name “Windsor.”
1934: The Federal Communications Commission was created; it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.
1944: During World War II, the twoday Battle of the Philippine Sea began, resulting in a decisive victory for the Americans over the Japanese.
1953: Julius Rosenberg, 35, and his wife, Ethel, 37, convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York.
1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved by the U.S. Senate, 73-27, after surviving a lengthy filibuster.
1975: Former Chicago organized crime boss Sam Giancana was shot to death in the basement of his home in Oak Park, Illinois; the killing has never been solved.
1986: University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of the Boston Celtics, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure.
1987: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creation science as well.
Actor Gena Rowlands is 92. Singer Spanky Mcfarlane of Spanky and Our Gang is 80. Actor Phylicia Rashad is 74. Singer Ann Wilson of Heart is 72. Keyboardist Larry Dunn (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 69. Actor Kathleen Turner is 68. Country singer Doug Stone is 66. Singer
Mark “Marty” Debarge of Debarge is 63. Singer-dancer Paula Abdul is 60. Actor Andy Lauer (“Caroline in the City”) is 59. Singer-guitarist Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe is 58. Actor Mia Sara (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ”) is 55. “Good Morning America” host Lara Spencer is 53. Guitarist Brian “Head” Welch of Korn is 52. Actor Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) is 50. Actor Robin Tunney is 50. Actor Bumper Robinson (“Sabrina The Teenage Witch”) is 48. Actor Poppy Montgomery (“Unforgettable,” “Without a Trace”) is 47. Singer-banjoist Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers is 46. Actor Ryan Hurst (“The Walking Dead,” “Sons of Anarchy”) is 46.